NameError: name 'years' is not defined

Question

New to python programming, when executing i get: print_target_output(principal,rate,years) NameError: name 'years' is not defined

What i want to do is to calculate years and print it

Any idea how do i fix this?

def calculate_years_to_target(principal, rate, target):   
  years = math.log(target/principal) / 4*(math.log(1 + rate/4))
  return years

def print_target_output(principal, rate, years):
  print(principal,rate,years)
  
 #MAIN
def main():  
 print_intro()
 principal,rate,target=get_target_input()
 calculate_years_to_target(principal,rate,target)
 print_target_output(principal,rate,years)

Answer 1

You need to assign your returned result to a variable when you call the function. If you do not do so, it will not be stored outside the scope of your function.

def main():  
 print_intro()
 principal,rate,target=get_target_input()

 ## Assign the returned result to a variable ##
 years = calculate_years_to_target(principal,rate,target)
 print_target_output(principal,rate,years)

To further your learning it may be of benefit to spend some time better understanding scopes and when you can/cannot access variables you assign in your code.

RealPython